Doctor Who
The Empty
Child/The Doctor Dances
By Steven
Moffat
“What's life?
Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to
a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on
your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a
human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little
body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're
programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull,
but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done.
Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and
it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever
stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of
one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop
it!”
The Doctor
and Rose are chasing a metal cylinder through the time vortex. It is a high priority and The Doctor uses the
TARDIS computers to lock in on it and follows it to Earth. They land in London in the year 1941 during
the height of German bombing blitz. The
problem is it will be difficult for The Doctor and Rose to find the cylinder as
it is war time and the army is guarding it.
Rose wanders off and ends up getting caught hanging onto the rope of a
barrage balloon as she was trying to help a kid on a roof wearing a gas
mask. She is soon rescued by the
mysterious Captain Jack Harkness who knows where the cylinder is and wants to
sell it for profit and wants to make a deal with Rose and The Doctor.
Meanwhile The
Doctor is curious about the mysterious girl named Nancy who is walking around
during the airraid. She appears to know
more about the kid with the gas mask than she is letting on and The Doctor is
worried about what the kid is and can do.
Nancy tells The Doctor to go to the hospital and see Doctor Constantine.
The Doctor arrives at the hospital and is shocked at what he sees. He sees tons of patients that have the same
symptoms as the kid with the gas mask.
Doctor Constantine tells The
Doctor that the epidemic is spreading and not to let them touch you. The Doctor realizes what is going on and if
he does not act quickly the entire human race will be wearing gas masks on
their face.
The Empty
Child/The Doctor Dances is the story that got the behind the sofa feel back to
Doctor Who. For the first time during
the reboot we were treated to a story that was dark and scary and that kid in
the gas mask was downright creepy. This
two part story is what Doctor Who should be.
What makes you scratch your head is that Steven Moffat wrote it and it
is unfortunate that he hasn’t really incorporated this style of writing more in
the Matt Smith era. Hopefully he does
during the Peter Capaldi era but for me when Steven Moffat writes in this way
it is very good and I generally will like it.
Ok I will 100% like it.
This story
also introduces one of the new series better and extremely popular reoccurring
character Captain Jack Harkness. I like
Captain Jack and watching again his first appearance made me think how
different his character was but in a way not to different. There was all the charm of the flirt and
bravado of the playboy but also he showed a conscious towards the end when he
knew he had to do the right thing when he realized he was responsible for
causing all the problems with the nanogenes.
Steven Moffat is responsible for creating two characters that are now a
part of the show mythos in River Song and Captain Jack and I for one think Jack
is the better of the two. It is funny
watching this story and thinking of what Captain Jack has become since with his
own show Torchwood and his return to the show in Series 3.
What I loved
about this story was that it was set during World War 2 which is a part of
history that is recognizable and works well with the bombs and such which works
with the plot of the story and adds to the spookiness of it considering
everything is happening during an air raid and a majority of the population are
in shelters. So those wandering around
not only have to watch for falling bombs but also the kid in the gas mask. No take that for example. Steven Moffat takes an ordinary object from
that time period and makes it scarier than it originally was. Bad enough people were wearing them in fear
of being gassed by the Germans but now they were menaced by a little kid wearing
one who had some freaky powers over the telephones. Plus he kept saying “Are You My Mummy.” All the
time and it just freaked you out every time he said it. Another example of taking something so
innocent and making it scary.
Like I said
this story gave us the real behind the story moment of the new series and it
was a welcome sight in a series that was lacking in scary. Plus The Empty Child /Doctor Dances gave us a
really good ending that makes you feel good as Jamie was brought back to life
and reunited with his mother. Like The Doctor says everyone needs a day like
this and The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances is the one that everyone needs to
watch from time to time. It is a true
classic for the new series and the first of many for Steven Moffat.
Grade A
No comments:
Post a Comment